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Nutrition in Gynecologic Cancer

  • Gynecologic Oncology (R Salani, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Obstetrics and Gynecology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nutrition plays a role in every aspect of gynecologic cancer care from diagnosis to death. Unfortunately, the topic is not well researched in gynecology oncology and much that is known about nutrition comes from other disciplines. Nutrition and resultant body mass index (BMI) affects a patient’s risk of diagnosis of a gynecologic malignancy, treatment tolerance, complications, and survival. Sadly, 20 % of patients with cancer die of malnutrition rather than their disease. However, not all malnourished patients are thin, as patients with BMIs in the obese range often do not have adequate nutrition. Recent literature challenges previous thoughts about feeding before and after surgery and clearly links obesity and diet quality with survival. More research is needed on the nutrition of patients with gynecologic malignancy, specifically how diet quality interfaces with the tolerance of radiation and chemotherapy.

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Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of Interest

Leigh A. Cantrell, Erin Saks, Valentina Grajales, and Linda Duska declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gynecology Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Leigh A. Cantrell, Erin Saks & Linda Duska

  2. University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Valentina Grajales

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  1. Leigh A. Cantrell
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  2. Erin Saks
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  3. Valentina Grajales
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  4. Linda Duska
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Correspondence to Leigh A. Cantrell.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Gynecologic Oncology

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Cantrell, L.A., Saks, E., Grajales, V. et al. Nutrition in Gynecologic Cancer. Curr Obstet Gynecol Rep 4, 265–271 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13669-015-0130-2

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